The gaps of the gods

We often hear, from the likes of creationists/’intelligent design’ proponents, that there are “gaps” in evolutionary theory, especially in places like the fossil record. I won’t dispute this: our knowledge of the universe is obviously incomplete, but as a species we’re working on it.

This is usually followed by a claim that, if science can’t present, in its entirety, a full and complete fossil record, including all ‘transitional forms’, then the gamut of evolutionary theory should be thrown out and, consequently, that their scriptural account (e.g. the book of Genesis) should be used as the bedrock of biological knowledge.

Of course, this is stupid argument: even if idea A is completely wrong, it does not follow that idea B is automatically right.

Before the claims of scripture can be accepted as bona fide knowledge, the “gaps” of undemonstrated claims therein need to be backed up by evidence, just like any other endeavour in the real world and just as these theists demand of science.

Apologists often say that there’s evidence for their particular flavour of belief (I’ve yet to see any that I can independently verify, but for the sake of argument I’ll assume that they have something or other hidden away somewhere) but there are still “gaps” that they don’t ever seem to be able to fill by providing a full and unbroken chain of evidence from “creation” until today or whenever their scripture ends, whichever comes first.

I think we should challenge theists on their evidence. Not just evidence for individual claims but — just as they demand from evolution — we should demand evidence for the entirety of their scripture. We should demand that these scriptural “gaps” be filled.

For example, here’s one for the jews, the christians, the muslims and the bahá’i (and any other religion based on the Abrahamic god stories although I’ll stick with the christian account here): where is the fossil evidence of the great fish that Jonah is supposed to have lived inside? Apologists for christianity and the other religions often claim that this great fish was actually a whale (KJV, AKJV, ASV, etc.) or even a sea monster (ISV, NASB, etc.), so we’ll allow those too. According to some of the (young-Earth) creationists, 6,000–12,000 years is plenty of time for this creature to have fossilised, so where is it? If it’s not dead and lives to this day, where is it? References: Jonah 1:17, Matthew 12:40.

Remember, not any old whale or great fish or sea monster will do; we demand the exact creature mentioned, with appropriate evidence to support the claim that Jonah did indeed live inside it for three days and three nights.

That’s just one thing that we demand they provide evidence for.

If they want us to believe that their scriptures are what both they and it claim to be, we unbelievers of their scripture (which includes all of those of any other theistic belief who don’t share their claims) demand a full and complete account of everything claimed by and in it. There’s 66 books worth of gaps for christians alone. We demand that they show us everything.

Otherwise, as they so often (and stupidly) claim of evolution, their scriptural account is “just a theory”¹. If you can’t do this, don’t be surprised when we express doubt in your claims and those of your scriptures.

Feel free to either provide independent evidence to support each and every claim and those of your scripture (if you are able) or, for the non-believers amongst us, add what you’d demand evidence for in the comments.

1. in the colloquial sense – the scientific use of this word is completely inappropriate here [↩]

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